LIBER X · CAPUT 56
THE BEST KINDS OF FOWLS
Latine · Mayhoff 1906
Gallinarum generositas spectatur crista erecta, interim et gemina, pinnis nigris, ore rubicundo, digitis inparibus, aliquando et super IIII digitos traverso uno. ad rem divinam luteo rostro pedibusque purae non videntur, ad opertanea sacra nigrae. est et pumilionum genus non sterile in iis, quod non in alio genere alitum, sed quibus centra, fecunditas rara et incubatio ovis noxia.
English · Bostock & Riley 1855–57
The breed of a fowl is judged of by the erectness of the crest, which is sometimes double, its black wings, reddish beak, and toes of unequal number, there being sometimes a fifth placed transversely above the other four. For the purposes of divination, those that have a yellow beak and feet are not considered pure; while for the secret rites of Bona Dea, black ones are chosen. There is also a dwarf species of fowl, which is not barren either; a thing that is the case with no other kind of bird. These dwarfs, however, rarely lay at any stated periods, and their incubation is productive of injury to the eggs.